Institute of Planetary Psychology

Astrology Articles

Introducing Your Birth Chart to You

Beginning Astrology

Lesson 2

In order to get a copy of your birth chart, you need to know your date, time and place of birth so that this information can be put into a computer and produce your chart.

When you look at your birth chart for the first time, you may feel a bit overwhelmed. There is a vast amount of information there but it is all in symbols you don’t recognize. Don’t be alarmed. This is natural. It will help you to appreciate this chart if I tell you that many years ago astrologers had to calculate all the signs and planetary positions by hand. This means that astrologers had to understand latitudes, longitudes, table of houses, table of logarithms, time zones and chart systems in order to create a readable and accurate chart. This was a time-consuming, sometimes difficult and tedious chore.

But now, in this modern time, all you have to do is go to www.alabe.com and look for the link “free birth chart page” at the top in themiddle of the page, put in your date, time and place of birth and you can print out your chart for free. At this point, you may be saying. “Well, I printed my chart out, but it might as well be in Russian, ’cause I don’t understand anything about it.” Well, I can understand this. It certainy looks complicated. But don’t be put off by what you see. There are many answers and solutions to your life that you can find here. It is worth taking the time to explore this unknown land.

The Rising Sign

The part of the above chart that would be 9 o’clock on your watch is called “The Rising Sign.” If you look back to Lesson One o find the sign that is on the 9 o’clock of this chart you will discover that President Obama has Aquarius rising. The rising is basically the personality. Read all about Aquarius and you will see how this relates to his personality. The line that marks the border to the first piece of pie is the beginning of the first house. In Skysage Astrology we call a house a “theater” because theaters are where our life experiences are dramatized. It is simply a more meaningful word for what goes on in those theaters.

The Twelve Theaters

Notice as you travel around this wheel from left to right, the theater numbers increase (1, 2, 3, etc.) Do you see these numbers inside the pie shaped theaters? There are 12 of them. You saw this wheel in your first lesson. Notice that there is a new sign where each theater begins. A particular sign rules a theater. Whatever sign is there on the line, that is the sign that rules that part of a person’s life. For example, the rising sign is the personality. Obama’s personality is Aquarian — magnetic, charismatic and highly skilled in expressing himself. But unpredictable. Just when you think you have him figured out, he does something unexpected. So far, this seems to be true in many regards.

You can start now to gain insight into a person’s personality simply by studying people you know and obtaining their rising sign, which is the first theater. Once you find out their birth information, go to alabe.com and get a chart printed out for them. Look at the 9’clock position on the chart and by using the information you used in Lesson One describe the meaning of their rising sign or their personality. Then check to see if these attitudes are displayed in the personality. Don’t be impatient to go to the next lesson. Stay with this observation for a while until you have done a lot of charts. You will begin to see with just this small amount of information, you have learned a lot about how the heavens hold the secret to understanding human beings. Don’t forget that each sign was described in a brief statement in Lesson One. You will see the attitudes of the signs to be quite accurate when you observe how they are expressed through the personality of the individual.